Language is not only a means of communicating information. Rather,
it can also function as an important means of establishing and
maintaining social relationship with other members of speech community.
It can also function as a powerful conveyor of bias. Power is quite an
abstract concept, but an infinitely important influence on our lives.
Power is often demonstrated through language and language reflects the
truth of the more dominant group, and largely hides the truth of the
less dominant group [24]. English has established itself as the most
important language in the world. The number of people who study English
and the number of functions that English serves attest to its
significance. Over the past decades the spread of English throughout the
world, it has become one of the central facts of education. English has
spread as an international language through the development of a
particular expert community, which guarantees specialist communication
within global expert communities [28].

The spread of English has its own critics who see global English as
a means of linguistic imperialism [17], which involves transferring
aspects of language, culture and power-military or economic-to others.

Bearing this point in mind that critical discourse analysis is
concerned with the situated use of language in certain socio-cultural
contexts and assuming that such use of language is the crystallization
of a particular ideology and lifestyle, it would be of interest to find
out if those involved in materials development for language learners
consistently follow any particular ideology, or if ideology has ever
been of concern to materials developers. Critical linguistics is widely
influential and successful in documenting the connection of linguistic
and social practices. It has the potential to provide a detailed
theoretical account of the operation of ideology in all aspects of texts
[7,8]. One such aspect is sexist uses of language in texts. Of course,
language usage is essentially a neutral vehicle of communication which
can be used to convey a range of attitudes and values.

Course content often conveys a "hidden curriculum":
underlying messages that go beyond factual information e.g. sexism,
ageism, social orientation and values. These may have to do with
religious or political beliefs, or with attitudes towards certain kinds
of people, nationalities, or cultures [27].

There may be some differences between explicit and implicit
curriculums. Some of the concepts that students learn are implicit and
unwritten. Teachers may not be aware that they are transmitting implicit
or hidden ideas but learners may sense it faster because some of these
ideas force them to behave in a particular way. They learn quickly that
they have to conform to the rules of the school if they want to receive
approval [1].

In line with the advent of language centers and their population of
students from diverse cultures, curriculum problem emerged. Teachers
were concerned about the inappropriateness of national curricula for
providing a truly global dimension and international experience in the
academic program. The informal relationships between culturally diverse
learners in an international setting should be enhanced by formal
recognition in the academic subjects, methodological approaches and
international comparisons which can enable learners to see their own
cultural identity in relation to the rest of the world.

In general, Jackson [13] is known as the originator of the term
hidden curriculum in his book Life in Classrooms., He identified
features of classroom life that were inherent in the social relations of
schooling through observations of public grade school classrooms. He
observed that there were dispositions, values, and social and behavioral
expectations that brought rewards in school for students and that
learning what was expected along these lines was a feature of the hidden
curriculum. He argued that the hidden curriculum emphasized specific
skills: exercising restraint, learning to wait quietly, trying,
completing work, cooperating, keeping busy, showing allegiance to both
teachers and peers, being neat and punctual, and conducting oneself
courteously [13]. Jackson enhances the meaning of the term "hidden
curriculum".

Anyon published an article entitled "Social Class and the
Hidden Curriculum of Work". In that article, she reports the
findings of a study in five schools in which she investigated how
children of different economic classes receive very different types of
educations. For that reason, Anyon compared two working-class schools,
one middle class school, an upper middle class school, and an elite
school. She found a connection between the social class of the students,
the type of education they receive in school, and the type of work. She
observed that children in poor schools were prepared to become obedient
laborers, while children in elite schools were prepared to become
original thinkers and leaders. She notes that her article attempts a
theoretical contribution as well and assesses student work in the light
of a theoretical approach to social-class analysis.

Apple [3] defines the hidden curriculum in a way that pointed to
the concept of hegemony. He argues that the concept of hegemony shapes
the school in many respects and defines schools as not just distributors
but also producers of culture that are vital for the socialization of
students. In other words, students encounter various norms and cultures
through rules and activities during their school and classroom life that
form the social life in the school.

Giroux [11] identifies schools as political institutions,
inextricably linked to the issues of power and control in the dominant
society. Citing Giroux, Giroux and Penna [10], he noted that the schools
mediate and legitimate the social and cultural reproduction of class,
racial and gender relations in dominant society. Giroux considers that
it is possible for students to resist powers in schools. To state this
in a different manner, school environment can enhance individuals'
understanding of power in society; accordingly, provide new
possibilities for social organization.

The relationship between sex and language and how it is represented
is an important issue in sociolinguistic studies. The study of language
and gender began in 1975 by the publication of three books which have
continued to significantly influence sociolinguistic works: Male/Female
Language (M. R. Key), Language and Women's Place (R. Lakoff), and
Difference and Dominance (Thorne & Henley). Since then,
sociolinguists have fundamentally shown too much interest in
sex/language relationship mostly with respect to the appearance in a few
languages of linguistic forms that are used only by speakers of just a
particular sex.

Sexist practices demean or ignore women (or men) or stereotype
either sex. Stereotyping is considered as one of the most important
types of bias, which attributes rigid characteristics to a particular
sex, race, etc and portrays a set of people exhibiting a particular set
of values, roles and behaviors. In some cases, sex differences depend
not only on the sex of the addresser, but also on the sex of the
addressee. In a nutshell, sex-linked linguistic variation involves
"the differential use of certain status-marking forms by sex"
[9].

As put forward earlier, it is assumed that students subconsciously
learn things from the stereotypical images presented in the selected
educational materials. These learning experiences influence the
students' acculturation process. It is sanctioned that males are
good with elaborate tools and technology, they are good at devising and
fixing things and that females, for another thing, are only good for
light work like cooking, cleaning and tending babies. Stereotypes can
also influence learners' worldviews. Some of the most relevant
studies of sexism and their manifestations in ELT textbooks are
mentioned below:

Graham [12], describing the development of a school children's
nonsexist dictionary, discusses nouns used to describe women and men.
Before compiling their dictionary, the lexicographers analyze five
million words from American children's textbooks. They found that
although there are actually more women than men in the real world, these
textbooks contained over seven times as many men as women and more than
twice as many boys as girls. Yet, the word mother occurred more
frequently than father. There were also three times as many wives as
husbands, indicating that all in all the main character or speaker in
the text was male.

Porreca [18] investigated how sexism is manifested in ESL textbooks
and with what consequences. In a content analysis of 15 widely-used ESL
textbooks, she focused on the categories of firstness, omission in texts
and illustrations, occupations, the frequency of male nouns to female
nouns, female-exclusive masculine generic constructions, and the types
and frequency of adjectives for men and women. In every category of her
study, she found that "there is evidence that sexism continues to
flourish in ESL textbooks" (p. 718). She reported that
"although females comprise slightly over half the population of the
United States, they are represented only half as often as males in both
texts and illustrations."

What about the invisible or stereotyped sex in society? To put it
differently, where are the women/men in any social context? Why are they
absent? If they are present, what activities are they doing? How do they
experience the situation? What do they contribute to it? What are their
roles? What does the situation mean to them? The present study also aims
to answer these questions and extend previous work in the field of
sexism.

Statement of the problem:

Recently there has been more English language teaching all over the
world. Language teaching centers have also been mushrooming around the
world. The most important difference between the private institutes and
the public schools is the teaching materials: in public schools,
"home-made" English books must be used as materials, which
represent a "sanctioned view" of the language, but in private
institutes, "imported" English books are widely taught.
Needless to say, this can do some irreparable damage to the accepted
standards and values by the students. This is what should not be
overlooked especially in Islamic countries where values and standards
are of high importance.

In light of the assumption that English language education
materials may provide students with biased ELT materials, this study
aims to determine whether, after many years now, we are still using
biased EFL materials which conveys power and superiority of a society.
It seeks to prove stereotyping a sex, imparting the values, culture, and
ideology of a particular society directly or through hidden curriculum
that can be regarded as violation of ethical standards of particular
societies. In this study, some illuminating light will be shed on the
areas of concern.

1.2. Research questions:

This study, especially, tends to answer the following questions:

1. Are the Interchange books biased in terms of culture and sexism?

2. Are features and lifestyle of particular societies idolized
through hidden curriculum?

3. Do these EFL materials violate the ethical standards of Islamic
countries like Iran?

1.3. Significance of the study:

This study is to review Interchange ELT textbooks to investigate
possible negative aspects of them like values and ideology of the book
producers' that may be imported. The results of this study may
raise awareness of teachers in teaching and introducing EFL materials.
It offers EFL teachers more options to customize their uses and provide
more culturally inclusive instruction of their students. Moreover, it
outlines effective strategies for confronting possible existing biases
and countering the development of new misconceptions so that prevents
power and superiority of a particular society from being established.
Finally, it also helps book producers to produce more neutral materials
free of biases, misconceptions, and taboos.

And what are some of the ways in which social values and attitudes
are conveyed through language in ELT materials or textbooks? A review of
the literature may shed some illuminating light on the areas of concern.

2. Methodology:

2.1. Corpus of the study:

The ELT Materials selected for analysis are the internationally
distributed Interchange textbooks (Interchange Intro, 1, 2, and 3). What
follows are the main reasons why Interchange series of EFL textbooks
were selected. Firstly, these books are widely used in academic and
non-academic language institutions in Islamic countries. Meanwhile,
there has always been controversy over the suitability of these
textbooks for students in Islamic countries. Secondly, they are written
by well-known applied linguists including Richards [19] and they are in
their fourth edition. Thirdly, they have been published by a leading and
internationally popular publisher (Cambridge University Press). They are
also four-skill communicative textbooks that are readily available on
the market.

2.2. Data analysis:

The framework used for the analysis is an adaptation of
Fairclough's [7] model of critical discourse analysis, which is
itself a practical application of Halliday's systemic-functional
grammar (SFG) to the analysis of texts. As expounded by Halliday, SFG
incorporates the ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions of
language into the interpretation of texts and sentence constituents.
Based on this theory, this model of analysis, when applied to the
selected texts, examines contents, social relations, and subject
positions, as defined below, in ELT textbooks to reveal the ideology and
power relationships which are perpetuated by them.

"Content", as one dimension of meaning, means the text
producers' knowledge and beliefs or, as put by Fairclough [7],
one's experience of the social or natural world. Within the context
of this research, the topics of discussions such as making a date or
finding a job were enumerated as instances of contents.
"Relation" refers to the social relationships enacted via the
text, such as mother-son or girlfriend-boyfriend. And "subject
position" refers to the social identity of interactants such as an
employer or a waitress.

These dimensions of meaning and the values they denote are
represented below. Table one shows how linguistic features relate to
dimensions of meaning and structural effects. As shown below, the
conventional use of linguistic features imposes and reflects constraints
on the three categories of structural effects.

2.3. Procedures:

In this study, a broad statistical survey of all the conversations,
reading passages and pictures was carried out to classify different
dimensions of topics into a comprehensible set of data. To put it
differently, the number of occurrences of each relation or topic was
counted through the books and the data thus obtained were tabulated to
obtain a clear picture of the dominant pattern of occurrences of these
dimensions. The rationale for examining these dimensions is to see which
aspects of meaning are emphasized or de-emphasized since these choices
reflect an ideological stance on the part of the textbook producers.
Interlocutors were specified in terms of gender, kind of relation, etc.

To classify social relations, each textbook was reviewed page by
page and a relation was counted any time two characters in the
conversations were in verbal communication. Relations were denoted in
three ways. Girlfriend-boyfriend, family members, Otherwise, relations
were denoted by one word in the plural form, like friends, colleagues,
neighbors, clients, classmates, places, general issues, not specified,
etc.

To avoid presenting a bulky set of data in categorizing certain
relations, wider categories were usually adopted. Therefore, although
social relations such as hotel guest-hotel receptionist could be
separated from passenger-airline clerk, the wider category of friends,
colleagues, neighbors, clients, classmates, places, general issues, not
specified, etc. was adopted.

In classification of subject positions, an occurrence of a subject
was counted every time it appeared in each part. Where one or more
persons were portrayed in the subject position, it was counted as only
one occurrence. In tabling the data, the subject positions were finally
grouped into three categories: occupational, commercial, and societal.
In cases where an interactant appears to be functioning in more than one
subject position like a train passenger travelling on business, the one
that seems most salient in the context was selected.

Despite some repetitions in tabulating the data, the
differentiation between relations and subject positions is necessary.
Fairclough [7] remarks, "all three [relations, subjects, and
contents] overlap and co-occur in practice, but it is helpful to be able
to distinguish them" (p. 46). The distinction is helpful to see how
constraints operate in these areas. Furthermore, subject positions are
portrayed by the mention and description of people in texts and
illustrations as well as by the conversations themselves.

Contents were the most troublesome aspect of the data to classify
because they sometimes defy easy classification and biasing may happen.
The topic of each conversation was established according to the general
picture obtained from the whole data; for the purposes of this research,
the contents were classified into two broad categories: (a) idolized
Particular lifestyle, culture, entertainment, entertainers, politicians,
economy and military power (b) neutral

In order to investigate sexism, two types of analysis were
performed. First, a systematic quantitative content analysis was carried
out with reference to sex visibility in conversations, reading passages
and illustrations. Secondly, a qualitative inquiry was made into
sex-linked job possibilities, sex-based activity types, stereotyped sex
roles and masculine generic conception to detect orientation or
stereotyping.

Different manifestations of sexism were examined in the analyses.
First, the number of occurrences of females and males in conversations,
reading passages and illustrations was counted and tallied. Second,
instances of female/male topic presentation- the number of times that
male-related or female-related were presented in conversations and
reading passages were tallied and summed. Next, the type of jobs for
females and for males was identified. Furthermore, the type of portrayed
activities in which females and males often participate was recorded.
Then, all traditional female-inclusive stereotyped sex-roles were paired
with its male-inclusive counterparts. Finally, in an attempt to document
whether masculine generic constructions are truly intended to be generic
(including both sexes) or they are merely male referenced, the
association between all pronouns and their referents were determined.

Since scoring was not simple, in order to avoid biasing and make
sure that the classification of the data and the resulting categories
are reliable, a second rater categorized the data. Then, Cronbach's
alpha was calculated for each category as a measure of inter-rater
reliability. The results were reported together with other statistical
data in the related tables. In no case an alpha of less than 0.70
([alpha] <0.70) was found.

3. Results:

3.1. Results of relations, contents, and subject positions:

The results of analysis on Interchange revealed what follows:

3.1. 1. Relations in the textbooks:

In the Interchange textbooks the category friends, colleagues,
neighbors, clients, classmates, places, general issues, not specified,
etc. appeared to be significant. Table 2 shows the pattern of relations
in all the four textbooks. It can be seen that friends, colleagues,
neighbors, clients, classmates, places, general issues, not specified,
etc. is by far the most common relation portrayed with 98(54%)
occurrences noted. This can be indicative of the emphasis that
conversation analysis puts on conversations between social equals, which
appear to "describe discourse as it might be in a better world
rather than discourse as it is" [7]. This conception has often been
transferred to ELT materials which are normally produced by the same
people as those involved in applied linguistics research.

The second most common relation is girlfriend-boyfriend with
76(42%) occurrences and the least common one is family members with
8(4%) occurrences, which highlights the dominance of a particular
lifestyle. The proportion of girlfriend-boy friend is meaningful since
it is larger than the number for family members about 9 times and it is
the second most common relation. From what has been observed the results
portray inequality in these relations.

The reason why in this case reading passages weren't analyzed
to investigate subject position is that in reading passages we
don't usually have interlocutors and relations. However, the
inequality is rarely addressed in these interactions, and this
reiterates the point regarding the tendency to conceal inequality in
discourse. Fairclough's [7] studies of actual micro-discourses
between doctors and interns, police and citizens, and so on reveal how
powerful participants exercise power through the conventions of
discourse. Once relations, subjects and contents are established, there
are observable constraints on such things as turn taking, who can ask
questions, who can interrupt, and forms of address, among many other
possibilities.

3.1. 2. Subject positions:

The subject positions for all the interactants in all the
conversations in each textbook were listed and tallied and then placed
in three general categories: occupational, societal, and commercial. In
each of these categories the subjects are listed in groups according to
their frequency of occurrence with the percentage for each category in
the textbooks, thus providing a general picture of the subject positions
as used in all the textbooks (see Table 3).

As shown in Table 3, societal subject position accounts for 63% of
all subject positions portrayed which indicates that there is a heavy
emphasis on the role the language learner might play in cultural
institutions such as clubs, festivals, or schools which is an advantage
of these textbooks. Commercial subject position accounts for 25% of all
subject positions portrayed which indicates the crystallization of
consumer society. Occupational subject position accounts for 11% of all
subject positions which is not the way we expected because it's a
general subject position and everyone would be in such a position.

The reason why in this case only the conversations were analyzed to
investigate subject position is that each unit usually begins with a
conversation and they are, in fact, the central part of each unit and we
always have interlocutors and illustrations usually correspond to the
conversations. In reading passages we don't usually have
interlocutors.

3.1. 3. Tabulation of Contents:

The topics treated in each textbook were first identified and then
to get a clear idea about the general pattern of contents in textbooks
these topics were classified into two general categories. The percentage
of each category for all the textbooks and for each individual textbook
is presented in Table 4 below.

As it can be seen in Table 4, although 85% of the conversations,
reading passages and illustrations are neutral, 15% of them idolize or
advertize a particular lifestyle, culture, entertainment, politicians,
economy and military power, etc. This can be considered as hidden
curriculum which can affect the students in particular societies.

The contents raise other questions about the nationality of the
entertainers, politicians, etc. Most of them are from or reside in
western countries, while there are many entertainers, politicians, etc.
which are internationally popular.

3.2. Results of quantitative and qualitative sexism analysis:

As for sexism concept, the corpus of study was examined both
quantitatively and qualitatively as presented below.

3.2. 1. Results of quantitative analysis on sexism:

The analysis of the data revealed that, based on the frequency of
occurrence, men suffered from low visibility. The percentage of
female-only visibility in texts was, in fact, 14% while the percentage
of male-only visibility in texts was 12%. Table 5 below presents the
frequencies of female/male visibility rates in conversations, reading
passages and illustrations of the textbooks.

3.3.2. Results of qualitative analysis on sexism:

An examination of conversations, reading passages and illustrations
of the textbooks demonstrated that from the total 312 topics, 0(0%)
topics were male-dominated or female-dominated. Table 6 offers a
detailed display of topic presentation in the textbooks. A close
qualitative look into sex-linked job possibilities, addressing way, and
superiority of a particular sex indicated that the occupational
capacities in which both sexes were portrayed didn't appear to be
restricted to particular occupations or stereotypes although, few
examples of firstness were observed. That is to say, given two nouns
paired for sex, such as brother and sister, boys and girls, the
masculine word usually came first. There wasn't confusion over
masculine generic conception in texts and illustrations.
'Generic' items are basically intended to include both sexes.
However, they did not seem to work the way they are supposed to, e.g.
parts of the human body or objects that are often not restricted to one
single sex such as shape of body were presented in association with the
pictures of men's body shape.

To round up, results indicated that the internationally distributed
interchange textbooks can be considered sexist and unfair in terms of
invisibility of men while they comprise almost half the population of
the world. It is suggested that this sexism seems to reflect the
institutionalized unjust sex discrimination to the disadvantage of men
in western societies. But the books can't be considered sexist in
terms of orientation and stereotyping a particular sex.

4. Discussion, conclusion and implications:

The main research questions were about the existence of cultural
biases and sexism (stereotyping and visibility) in the internationally
distributed interchange textbooks and we were intended to see whether
features, lifestyle of the textbook producers' society are idolized
or not. We were also going to investigate violation of ethical standards
of Islamic countries in these textbooks.

Generally speaking, in the internationally distributed Interchange
textbooks, by looking at the data on social relations, an emphasis on
the interaction between social equals is observed. By examining the data
on subject positions, one can easily see the emphasis placed on
commercial and occupational positions. When the data on contents are
examined, an emphasis on non-controversial topics, entertainment, and
individual preferences and choice can be seen. Overall, the pattern is
that conversations are interactions between social equals performing
commercial and occupational roles while talking about issues concerning
individual preferences and choice.

The analysis of the text content also revealed that in the
portrayal of occupations an emphasis on skilled workers such as computer
technicians and doctors, or on summer jobs of students, such as an
intern. This aims to entertain the learner with a portrayal of this
segment of society, partly because it is more enticing than others, but
also because, like the media which sell through advertising, the
textbook content is designed to enthuse the more affluent sectors of the
market in order to maximize sales.

In spite of the fact that in much of the literature on ELT there is
talk of the need to compromise and to adopt a sanctioned view of
language appropriate for international use, and even though actual place
names, historical figures, and settings are avoided, the discourse of
these ELT textbooks seems to mirror the discourses of the developed
free-market western economies. Such an outcome may be expected since the
ideological nature of the text implies that teaching English does not
simply mean the neutral transfer of skills, knowledge, and competencies.
Certain assumptions, values, and implicit or explicit beliefs are
inextricably packaged in with the language [5].

The study also implies that the textbooks claims of promoting
learner independence and empowerment should not be taken at face value
since such claims may be just an attempt to hide the fact that certain
ideology is implanted in learners. This is especially an issue in a
teacher-centered approach in which values are taught explicitly.

Interpreting the results of the study, there are some points which
are noteworthy. First, conversations are contextualized that is why the
social relations and the subject positions of the participants could be
determined easily. Making the language in these books social is a major
feature of the books (societal subject category). Second, instances of
cultural contrast, was observed. This is to corroborate
contextualization in these books. Put differently, an attempt to present
a 'cultureless' language is not made. Finally, there is a
heavy emphasis on consumer-oriented topics i.e. commercial subject
category. This observation verifies the fact that the instrumental use
of language informs the choice of language and content in the textbooks.

Overall, the findings show a demand for more cognizance of the
impact of the market on language teaching. Those involved in material
development should be concerned with what compromises are involved and
what ideological implications are at stake when preparing international
ELT materials. Since, as observed by Toolan [26], what underlies the
globalization is a new kind of regimentation in which all companies and
markets and countries are brought into line with certain standards set
by corporate America and corporate Europe to give those corporate powers
free access to the world's seven billion consumers.

From what has been said in the result section, it can be concluded
that Interchange series are culture-biased. However, to be on the safe
side, it should be noted that these biases are relative and more salient
in Islamic countries. And we may draw this conclusion that life style
and features of a particular society are advertised. For example, most
entertainers, politicians, are from the United States or western
countries. Particularly speaking, another question may arise: "Why
Carter not Gandhi?" Carter, the former president of the U.S., is
notorious in some countries like Iran but Gandhi is internationally
praised. Some students may subconsciously come to accept the superiority
of life style and may praise them.

What about the role of family? The results of relation reveal that
family as key component of every society, especially Islamic societies,
is de-emphasized in the internationally distributed interchange
textbooks while it is in contrast with ethical standards of some
society. Censorship of some illustrations (that can be considered to
have a sexy look at women), conversations (about going to a dance,
karaoke bar, etc.), reading passages (that idolize singers, actresses,
etc.), and unsafe topics (such as making dates, etc.) can be considered
as signs of violation of ethical standards in some societies. Definitely
this doesn't mean that book producers should not insert their own
standards, but a balance is needed for international curricula to be on
the safe side. It's true that girlfriend-boyfriend relationship may
not be that bad in the west and it has cultural and ideological
background, but it is not acceptable in Islamic countries and it imparts
lifestyle and particular values that may bring about transmutation and
brainwashing among teenagers and adults in Islamic countries where this
is in contrast with their values and ethical standards.

Seemingly little attempt has been made to make learners aware of
issues such as dialogue management strategies like turn taking or to
even equip them with the verbal self-defense skills needed to deal with
different types of infringement of their wishes. What seems to be
lacking is an explicit teaching of such skills rather than simply
exposing them to certain forms of language. In addition, relations are
portrayed in conversations that are often contextualized and short.

Instructional materials can greatly affects learners'
attitudes and dispositions towards people and society. This is
particularly true with ESL/EFL students whose success is conditioned not
only by their mastery of the new language, but also, and especially, by
their ability to negotiate the new culture. Building on the argument
that learning a second/Foreign language inseparable from the acquisition
of the culture that it embodies, this study argues that the design and
adaptation of textbooks and other instructional materials should mirror
multiple perspectives inherent to a pluralistic society to engage
learners in a process of uncovering and confronting cultural biases and
facilitate intercultural learning. This study also posits that
instructional materials that do not integrate learners' diverse
life experiences in the teaching and learning process fail to empower
them to identify the missing, misconstrued and misrepresented voices.

In general, women are traditionally regarded as second-class
citizens in ELT textbooks. But, interestingly, women are not less
visible than men in the internationally distributed interchange
textbooks. Although the invisibility of man is no way acceptable, in one
sense the visibility of women can be a step forward in material
preparation. Furthermore, to some people in Islamic societies, the
visibility of women can have a negative implication which is the
instrumental look at women to add attraction to the textbooks and make
them more popular. Examination of the treatment of women in Interchange
textbooks revealed that in every category of this study, women
didn't appeared less visible than men. Evidence was also found that
English was basically taught through the presentation of
female-orientated topics. In addition, a much closer look at the data
demonstrated that male firstness was not prevalent, females were not
placed in traditional stereotypical roles. In light of these findings,
one may claim that since the first study of sexism in these textbook
materials, much has changed in a comparison with previous works. It is
remarkable that ESL/EFL teachers still, in the modern age, use materials
which are loaded with a lot of female/male-as-norm elements and are
fraught with the unfair and inexcusable language of a
female/male-dominated society.

International education imparts an ethic for the future of
humanity. It shouldn't impose but allow students to discover and
reflect for themselves. It should provide students with material on
global issues, responses from some of the world's most creative
thinkers and the opportunity to discuss. However, agreement on such
universal values does not necessarily mean that different nations or
ethnic groups will act in the same way. But to what extent the
internationally distributed Interchange textbooks are faithful in
shouldering this burden? All that can be offered is an often-neglected
perspective, asking what is the content that we teach unintentionally,
and how by adopting this perspective we may seek to reinforce valuable
process messages and diminish the others. To conclude this heading, the
internationally distributed Interchange textbooks don't look to be
careful about this fact. While, an international education must go well
beyond the provision of information and is involved in the development
of attitudes and values which transcend barriers of race, class,
religion, gender or politics.

According to Campbell [6], schools and teachers have an important
role in preparing learners for cultural pluralism. They do so by
presenting a curriculum that mirrors multiple perspectives on issues as
well as diverse life experiences, both desirable and undesirable, and by
empowering students to identify the missing, misconstrued and
misrepresented voices. Learners must learn that the viewpoints presented
in instructional materials can be challenged and questioned, and that
there is not one truth, but multiple truths. Above all, they must learn
that uncovering stereotypes and biases and discussing them openly is a
constructive way to confront the development of new misconceptions and
to augment mutual understanding.

To put it in a nutshell, the hidden curriculum as a socialization
of schooling can be identified by the social interactions within an
environment. Therefore, it is in process all the time, and serves to
transmit indirect messages to learners about attitudes, values and
principles.

Teachers should make their learners aware of the fact that language
is not merely grammar, but that it is also a system of communication for
sharing ideas and a way of controlling people and influencing actions
and thoughts. Language use involves making choices about grammar, lexis,
discourse structure, register, and so forth which are made for certain
reasons.

In this section, some strategies for teaching sex-biased concepts
have been summarized. Ask students to leaf and review textbooks and
identify different forms of bias. Then ask them to suggest ways to
confront and remove the bias and create make equitable textbooks. While
curriculum bias clearly impacts one sex, the other sex can also be
victim as well. Use the different forms of bias as a framework, find
instances that negatively impact a particular sex, and suggest ways to
confront the bias. Ask students to identify how different forms of bias
appear in interpersonal interactions.

In addition, some helpful strategies for teachers to confront
deconstruct textbook cultural biases will be discussed.

Raise awareness:

Creating critical language cognizance in learners is what language
teachers can do with the present materials available on the market.
Almost all students in Iran and Middle East, where these books are
widely used, are Muslim and think highly of their own culture and
religion. Therefore, teachers need to increase their awareness of the
various types of destructive effects on students' perceptions and
learning experiences.

Examine educational materials critically:

Check the illustrations and the content in the reading passages,
scrutinize the relationships between people, look at the lifestyles,
note the heroes, consider the possible effects on learners' self
image, consider the background of the author and the depicters, watch
out the author's perspective, and be careful about word selection.
As developing the objectives of each section, ask questions like: What
are the short-term/long-term positive/negative outcomes of the lesson?
What are the implicit messages contained in the materials? How do the
materials strengthen the learners to become accountable citizens? How do
the materials strengthen the learners to critically examine their
experiences and their relationships with others in society? Do the
materials enthuse the learners to be responsible for their lives and
actively participate in the transformation of their society into one
that is inclusive, equitable and fair?

Listen to learners as much as possible:

Learners bring their experiences with them. They are an
instructional resource of incredible potential. Listening to what they
say about their culture and ideas empowers them and enriches their
teachers and classmates. This will help discard some biases and
misconceptions about their own lives.

Provide students with supplementary materials:

An effective way to confront the development of stereotypes and
other forms of bias is to use different resources that present multiple
perspectives about people and issues. Newspaper articles, biographies,
television shows, music and guest speakers from the community are only a
few examples of resources that teachers can use to provide the students
with more diversified and inclusive instruction.

Uncover the existing biases:

Learners must negotiate between right and wrong, truth and deceit,
love and hatred, acceptance and intolerance, victory and defeat,
knowledge and ignorance, etc. Teachers must expose these issues, uncover
biases and get the students involved in reflective and critical
discussions of alternative perspectives and answers to confusing
questions.

Last but not least, an indispensable part of any curriculum is its
syllabi. Acquisition of another language enables one to compare the
cultural values of two societies. It certainly causes a change in the
learners' relation to the society. But it shouldn't
necessarily result in a decrease of identification with the native
framework. If this happens, it is because of improper understanding of
both cultures, the result of improper EFL teaching. If enough and proper
attention is paid to explaining the cultural differences when teaching a
foreign language, the students will come to realize that cultures are
different and not superior or inferior.

[26.] Toolan, M., 1999. Nation languages, local literatures, and
international readers: A new indiginization in native English writers?
Available at http://artsweb.bham. ac.uk./Mtoolan/nationlanguage.htm.